ICE South West ambassadors spent the day building bridges with city primary school students at the National Marine Aquarium on 11th September, as part of Plymouth’s Marine Festival 2012.
The students built a model of the second Severn Crossing, a 15-metre long, 3 metres high cable-stay bridge made from plywood and aluminium, as part of ICE’s work promoting careers in civil engineering to young people. The bridge was loaned to the South West team by ICE Wales Cymru, which owns and maintains it.
The bridge was brought to Plymouth thanks to Plymouth City Council, which funded its transport from Wales to Plymouth. Assisted by ICE South West ambassadors from across the South West, it was constructed three times throughout the day by students from Ford, Leigham and Shakespeare primary schools.
The project, which has been designed by ICE, travels around schools across the UK giving students in Year 4 upwards the opportunity to experience civil engineering for themselves. Students consider all aspects of the project, from why bridges are needed (such as to allow us to travel over rivers and estuaries, hence the marine link), planning and materials, to construction and health and safety.
The National Marine Aquarium’s shed building was treated as a construction site for the day, so all those involved with building and testing the bridge wore PPE. This was also important for the teachers, who were encouraged to test each bridge before students walked across!
Trish Johnson, Regional Director for ICE South West, said: "The day was a great success - the children took to building bridges like proper engineers, asking questions on how the bridge was made, as well as working in their teams to put it together. They particularly loved making their teachers walk across it first!
"Bridge to Schools is an important part of ICE's campaign to reach out to children of all ages, showing them how civil engineering is a part of every day life, and just how interesting and rewarding a career in engineering can be."